Check the Spelling + Validate the Mail Server + Check the Mailbox

Checks the spelling of an email address to detect typos and spelling errors. If the email address has a valid syntax its mail server is determined and checked for existence. The mail server itself will be compared with a list of disposable providers to detect addresses with a short lifetime. Additionally the mail server will be checked if an email for the given mailbox can be received.

Request Url: https://api.datamill.solutions/email/extended/check
Request Method: POST

Table of Contents

Request Parameters

The API uses the POST request method to send data in the HTTP message body to avoid data being stored in the cache of the web server. A request is valid if all parameters are provided as described below (data type, minimum and maximum length). Please note that all data must be UTF-8 and URL encoded.

POST /email/extended/check HTTP/1.1
Host: https://api.datamill.solutions

name1=value1&name2=value2
Parameter Mandatory Data Type Min. Max. Description
license required string 29 29 Your license key used for authentication - keep this key secret!
guid required string 30 40 Your GUID used for authentication - keep this key secret!
requestproof optional string 0 1 set to 1 if you need a unique request identifier as proof for your API request e.g. for VAT checks; default is 0
returnavailablecredits optional string 0 1 set to 1 to get the number of data.mill credits available in your data.mill account; default is 0; a return value of -1 means that you have unlimited credits
responseformat optional string 3 4 format of returned data; possible values are xml or json (default)
email required string 1 320 The email address to be checked

Response

The API returns all data in valid JSON. A few programming languages include native support for JSON. For those that don't, you can find a suitable library at http://www.json.org. Valid requests always returns all response keys listed below. Depending on the request parameters some response keys may be empty.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Server: Apache
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Date: Sun, 08 Dec 2024 15:52:20 GMT
Content-Length: 33
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

{"key1":"value1","key2":"value2"}
Name Data Type Description
valid string Flag if the spelling is valid, the mail server exists and would receive a mail for the given mailbox. The response may be unknown if the mailbox has an indeterminate status like greylisted or catch-all.
  • 0: the email address is invalid
  • 1: the email address is valid
  • unknown: the email address could not be verified
description string Empty if the email address is valid, otherwise a description why the email address is invalid or unknown.
  • syntax: typo error in email address
  • domain: no MX record found for the domain part
  • disposable: known provider for disposable email addresses
  • mail server currently unavailable: connection to the mail server could not be established
  • mailbox: the mail server rejects emails for the given mailbox
  • greylisted: the request was blocked by the mail server
  • catch all: the mail server accepts mails for all email addresses
status_code string Unique status code for each possible validation state
  • 1: the email address has a valid syntax, a MX record exists, it's not disposable and the mailbox exists
  • 10: typo error in email address
  • 20: no MX record found for the domain part
  • 21: known provider for disposable email addresses
  • 30: the mail server rejects emails for the given mailbox
  • 31: connection to the mail server could not be established (temporary unavailable)
  • 32: the request was blocked by the mail server (greylisted)
  • 33: the mail server accepts mails for all email addresses

Response Errors

If the request fails the API returns a HTTP status code according to the reason. A reason may be a missing mandatory request parameter, invalid parameter credentials (minimum/maximum length) or invalid API keys. The response body is a valid JSON containing detail information about the reason (except for status code 500).

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found

Server: Apache
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Date: Sun, 08 Dec 2024 15:52:20 GMT
Content-Length: 71
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

{"errorcode":404,"errormessage":"transformation function name invalid"}
HTTP Status Code Reason
401 Unauthorized
The license key and/or GUID key is missing, invalid or inactive.
402 Payment Required
Your /data.mill credit quota is exceeded. You need to get more credits.
403 Forbidden
You need to accept all required agreements of this function to be able to use it.
404 Not Found
The request path in combination with the request method does not exist.
405 Method Not Allowed
The request method is not allowed for the requested path.
412 Precondition Failed
At least one of the given request parameter has invalid credentials (e.g. data type, length).
428 Precondition Required
At least one of the mandatory request parameter is missing or has an empty value.
500 Internal Server Error
An unexpected condition terminated the request.
503 Service Unavailable
The service is currently in maintenance mode and will be alive later.

Batch Mode

The batch mode allows the execution of thousands of records (limited to 5,000) combined in a single request. This API endpoint as described above uses the single mode execution of records. To use the batch mode you need to combine all request parameters above (excluding license and guid) as array, where each array element represents a single record. This array is converted to a valid JSON string and set as value of the new request parameter called batch. The response of the batch mode is a valid JSON which contains the result for each record set in the request. The response keys of each result element are the same as for the single request mode described above.

Batch Request

license=...
&guid=...
&batch=[{"requestproof":"...","returnavailablecredits":"...","responseformat":"...","email":"..."},{"requestproof":"...","returnavailablecredits":"...","responseformat":"...","email":"..."}]

Batch Response

[{"valid":"...","description":"...","status_code":"..."},{"valid":"...","description":"...","status_code":"..."}]

Pricing

In order to enable the payment of different currencies, we have introduced a system based on credit balance as payment for the individual functions. The currency of the account is called /data.mill credits. To use the functions, the account must be charged in advance. If the credit price of a function is higher than the current balance, the function can not be executed. The credits will be deducted from your balance after executing the function. Your credits have no expiration date.

This functions costs unknown /data.mill credits for each record set in the request.

Code Snippets

We provide some code snippets for multiple programming languages to easily implement this function in your own application. The code snippets below uses the single request mode. If you want to use the batch mode instead of the single mode you need to modify the snippet. Feel free to copy the code snippets for your preferred programming language.

// the following code requires cURL php extension installed on your server (http://php.net/manual/en/book.curl.php) // initialize a new cURL session and store the cURL handler object $curl = curl_init(); // set the url to which the request will be sent curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.datamill.solutions/email/extended/check"); // set the HTTP method to use for the request curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "POST"); // set the number of parameters to be sent to the server curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, 6); // data to be sent to the server // TODO: append your API keys and value(s) and don't forget to urlencode() them curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "license=&guid=&requestproof=&returnavailablecredits=&responseformat=&email="); // set a timeout in seconds for the request curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 10); curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 10); // return the raw data from the server curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); // execute the previously created cURL session $responseString = curl_exec($curl); // close the cURL session after execution curl_close($curl); // convert the response (string) to an array $responseArray = json_decode($responseString, true); // TODO: process the data in the response array (you may process the data in the response string too)
/* Note: We highly recommend to NOT use this code as it is written here. If you choose JavaScript as your preferred programming language, please change the following code to request your own server (without API keys) and further redirect the request from your own server to the API including your API keys. Otherwise everyone will be able to read your API keys and use them for their own purpose! */ // the following code requires jQuery JavaScript library (minimum version 1.8.1) added to your website (http://jquery.com/download/) // perform an asynchronous HTTP (Ajax) request jQuery.ajax({
// set the url to which the request is sent url : "https://api.datamill.solutions/email/extended/check", // set the HTTP method to use for the request type: "POST", // data to be sent to the server (you may use a JavaScript object instead of a string) // TODO: append your API keys and value(s) and don't forget to urlencode() them data : "license=&guid=&requestproof=&returnavailablecredits=&responseformat=&email=", // type of data that we are expecting back from the server dataType: "JSON", // set a timeout in milliseconds for the request timeout: 10000, // function to be called if the request succeeds success:function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
// {object} data The data returned from the server, formatted according to the dataType parameter. // {string} textStatus String describing the status. // {object} jqXHR A XMLHttpRequest object describing the response. // TODO: process the data in the 'data' JavaScript object
}, // function to be called if the request fails error: function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
// {object} jqXHR A XMLHttpRequest object describing the response. // {string} textStatus String describing the type of error occurred. // {string} errorThrown Text portion of the HTTP status, such as "Not Found" or "Internal Server Error". // TODO: process the error occurred
}
});
// the following code uses standard libraries included in Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 or higher using System.IO; using System.Web; using System.Net;
// create an array of bytes representing the data to be sent to the server // TODO: append your API keys and value(s) and don't forget to urlencode() them byte[] Data = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("license=&guid=&requestproof=&returnavailablecredits=&responseformat=&email="); // create a new web request resource and set the url to which the request is sent HttpWebRequest Request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("https://api.datamill.solutions/email/extended/check"); // set the HTTP method to use for the request Request.Method = "POST"; // set the request content type Request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"; // set the number of bytes being sent to the server Request.ContentLength = Data.Length; // set a timeout in milliseconds for the request Request.Timeout = 10000; // try to send all data to the newly created web request resource try {
using(var Stream = Request.GetRequestStream()) {
Stream.Write(Data, 0, Data.Length);
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
// TODO: process the exception thrown (e.g. url not found) return;
} // try to read the response from the web resource try {
HttpWebResponse ResponseObject = (HttpWebResponse)Request.GetResponse(); StreamReader Reader = new StreamReader(ResponseObject.GetResponseStream()); // read the whole response as string and store it String ResponseMessage = System.Net.WebUtility.HtmlDecode(Reader.ReadToEnd()); // TODO: process the data in 'ResponseMessage'
} catch (WebException ex) {
// error occurred, http status code != 200 (e.g. timeout or parameter invalid) if(ex.Status == WebExceptionStatus.Timeout) {
// TODO: process the timeout reached
} else {
// read the response from the web exception HttpWebResponse ResponseObject = (HttpWebResponse)ex.Response; StreamReader Reader = new StreamReader(ResponseObject.GetResponseStream()); // read the whole response as string and store it String ResponseMessage = System.Net.WebUtility.HtmlDecode(Reader.ReadToEnd()); // TODO: process the error response received from the server (stored in 'ResponseMessage')
}
}
// the following code requires at least Android API version 10 // import standard Java and Android libraries import java.util.List; import org.apache.http.NameValuePair; import java.util.ArrayList; import org.apache.http.message.BasicNameValuePair; import java.net.URLDecoder; import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost; import org.apache.http.client.entity.UrlEncodedFormEntity; import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient; import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
// create a list of key-value-pairs to store the data which will be sent to the server List<NameValuePair> dataPairs = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(); // add each parameter to the key-value-pair list (value is decoded to UTF-8 standard) // TODO: append your API keys and value(s) dataPairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("license", URLDecoder.decode("enter value here", "UTF-8"))); dataPairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("guid", URLDecoder.decode("enter value here", "UTF-8"))); dataPairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("requestproof", URLDecoder.decode("enter value here", "UTF-8"))); dataPairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("returnavailablecredits", URLDecoder.decode("enter value here", "UTF-8"))); dataPairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("responseformat", URLDecoder.decode("enter value here", "UTF-8"))); dataPairs.add(new BasicNameValuePair("email", URLDecoder.decode("enter value here", "UTF-8"))); // create the web resource with pre-defined POST method and set the url to which the request is sent HttpPost request = new HttpPost("https://api.datamill.solutions/email/extended/check"); // append the parameters to the web resource request.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(dataPairs)); try {
// execute the request and read the response string HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient(); String response = client.execute(request); // TODO: process the data in 'response'
} catch (IOException ex) {
// TODO: process the exception thrown
}

Try it right now!

Enter some example data to test the result of the API.

Need help?

If you have any questions about the implementation of this API or found an error please don't hesitate to contact our support team.